My instructor taught us how to read music, individual notes in chords, individual notes on the fretboard, and how to improvise. After a year of practicing with scales, my ear became trained to certain keys and chords. I learned how to play certain songs just by listening to them repeatedly until I had it right. At the end of the semester, I bought a mandolin as a gift to myself for graduating college.
A few months after graduation, I got together with other musicians in my family. A song called for a certain chord that I had never played before on mandolin. However, the foundation I had with my formal training in guitar made it easy to figure out the notes of the chord in the song as I was playing due to the years of preparation.
In Matthew 7, Jesus tells us to build our faith on a firm foundation. He used the example of houses built on different foundations. The house built upon a rock was new and never experienced any bad weather. However, when the bad weather came for the first time, the house was ready.
I know I have been guilty of trying to build on a solid foundation during my storms instead of before them. Although we are tempted to rest after our storms and trials, G-d wants us to use this time to repair our spiritual houses and strengthen our foundations during good spiritual weather before we face our next storm.